As an avowed atheist living among a sea of believers (both locally and on the Internet), I have spent a lot of time discussing my beliefs (or lack thereof, as the case may be). The purpose of this blog is not to prove the non-existence of God or "de-convert" anybody from their faith, but simply to preserve some of these discussions and allow me to flesh them out through the process of writing them down, as well as to share them with anybody who might be interested in reading them.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Is God’s Will Simple to Understand?

[Recently, on a forum I frequent, somebody asked, "Would God require scholars and complicated texts to understand him, or is his will so simple anyone can understand?" Most
of the answers I read seemed to assume that the person asking the
question was specifically referring to the Christian God, and they all
talked about how it was very simple indeed to know God’s will and
proceeded to provide the key Biblical scriptures that one needs to read
in order to understand God’s will (ironically, each answer quoted
different scriptures).

Anyway, rather
than assuming which God the OP was asking about, I thought I’d give a
slightly broader, more nuanced, response. In my own inimitable style, of
course…]

Of course God’s
will is simple to understand! After all, He loves all of us and really
wants us all to know His will so we can return to Heaven and worship Him
for all eternity, right? What sort of monster would require us to know
His will in order to avoid eternal torment and then not make it simple to understand His will?

Anyway, here are the six easy steps to know God’s will in all things:

First of all, you just need to decide which of all the many gods worshiped throughout human history is the one true God
in the first place. Zeus? Odin? Amun-Ra? Marduk? Quetzalcoatl? Ba’al?
Amaterasu-Ōmikami? Tāne? Vishnu? Ahura Mazda? Jehovah (a.k.a. Allah)?
Each God has different attributes and offers a different path to
salvation (not to mention has different holy books written about
Him/Her/It), so it’s vitally important you select the right one. OK, so
it’s probably not one of the Gods worshiped by ancient civilizations*,
but at the very least you will need to pick between the God of the
so-called “Abrahamic” religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), the
God of Hinduism, the God of Zoroastrianism, the God of Sikhism, etc.
Still, it’s probably whichever God your parents just so happen to
believe in**, so that’s easy enough.

*We all know what a bunch of ignorant and superstitious people those ancients all were, am I right?

** What an amazing coincidence!

Then, once you've figured out which is the one true God, decide which of the various religions
worshiping that God is the one true faith in that God. If you’ve opted
for, say, Jehovah/Allah, then you would simply need to decide whether
Judaism, Christianity or Islam is the one true faith. Each main
religion has very different ideas of what their chosen God wants us to
do, so once again it’s vitally important to pick the right religion.
After all, what if you pick Judaism and it turns out that the bit about
Christ was true after all? Or what if you pick Christianity and it turns
out that Muhammad actually was God’s final prophet? What if you
dutifully pray toward Mecca five times each day and it turns out that
God really wanted you to observe the Sabbath once a week instead? Again,
though, it’s probably whichever God your parents happened to believe
in, right? Lucky you for being born into the right family and the right
culture and the right country, eh? Pity about everybody else who wasn’t
so lucky, but what can you do?

Next, once you’ve figured out which is the correct religion, decide which of the many, many denominations of
that religion is the correct one. If, say, you picked Christianity as
the one true faith, just figure whether the correct denomination is
Catholics, Episcopalians, Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. Mormonism),
Baptists, Born Again Christians, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals,
Methodists, Shakers, Quakers, Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Greek
Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Church of Christ, etc. Keep in mind that
each denomination interprets the holy scriptures in a different way, and
one denomination’s “salvation comes by grace alone” is another
denomination’s “faith without works is dead.” A little harder here,
since people do tend to convert from one denomination to another and you
may not be able to rely on the denomination your parents belonged to.
But, still — it can’t be that hard to know which one is the right one,
can it? No pressure, though — it’s not like the fate of your everlasting
soul depends on it or anything*.

* Oh, wait…

OK,
now that you’ve figured out which is the correct denomination of the
correct religion of the correct God, you may also need to decide which
particular sect of that denomination really knows what God’s will
is. For example, if you selected Baptist as the correct denomination of
the correct religion of the correct God, you will now have to decide
whether the correct sect is Southern Baptist Convention, National
Baptist Convention, Nigerian Baptist Convention, National Missionary
Baptist Convention of America, National Baptist Convention of America,
Baptist Union of Uganda, Baptist Community of Western Congo, Baptist
General Convention of Texas, Baptist Convention of Tanzania, Brazilian
Baptist Convention, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Baptist
Bible Fellowship International, American Baptist Churches, Lott Carey
Foreign Mission Convention, Baptist Community of the Congo River,
National Primitive Baptist Convention of the U.S.A., Myanmar Baptist
Convention, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Baptist General Association
of Virginia, Baptist Convention of Kenya, Council of Baptist Churches in
Northeast India, Nagaland Baptist Church Council, Korea Baptist
Convention, Samavesam of Telugu Baptist Churches, Orissa Evangelical
Baptist Crusade, National Baptist Convention (Brazil), Church of Christ
in Congo–Baptist Community of Congo, Baptist Convention of Malawi, Garo
Baptist Convention, Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches, Ghana
Baptist Convention, Union of Baptist Churches in Rwanda, American
Baptist Association, Baptist Missionary Association of America,
Conservative Baptist Association of America, National Association of
Free Will Baptists, Convention of Visayas and Mindanao of Southern
Baptist Churches, Manipur Baptist Convention or Baptist Community in
Central Africa. Again, each sect is bound to interpret the main doctrine
of the denomination in a different way unique to their own culture. I
know this sounds daunting, but I’m sure if you pray to God and ask Him
(or Her or It), She/He/It will be happy to let you know. Just make sure
you pray sincerely (just like everybody else) and I’m sure God won’t
steer you wrong*.

*Just because God apparently steered wrong everybody who picked a different sect than you doesn’t mean He would ever steer you wrong.
After all — you’re special! Billions and billions and billions of
people on the earth since the beginning of time and all desperately
hoping to know what God’s will really is. But they weren’t all special
like you are, so it’s OK.

Now that you’ve selected the correct sect of the correct denomination of the correct religion of the correct God, go pick the congregation you
think has the most knowledgeable preachers and teachers. After all, the
Southern Baptist church down the street may be full of budding heathens
and atheists or just ignorant folks who don’t really understand the
word of God. At this point, you’re almost there, so you can be sure that
God wouldn’t steer you toward the wrong congregation. Just go with
whichever one makes you feel the most comfortable and be assured that
God has directed you (and you alone, among all the billions of his children, because you are just so danged special*) to the right place.

* Did
I mention just how very special and lucky you are? I mean, just think
of the odds! Seriously, you should go out and play the lottery right now.

Finally,
once you’ve selected the right congregation of the right sect of the
right denomination of the right religion of the right God, all you need
to do now is figure out which of the many preachers and teachers
within that congregation actually understands what the holy book of that
religion actually means. Sadly, each individual preacher or teacher
will likely have their own interpretation, so it’s vitally important
that you only listen to the one who has it 100% right. Should you shun
homosexuals or welcome them? Should you donate money to homeless people
or is that just encouraging bad habits? Do women really need to be
subject to their husbands’ will or not? Is it enough to just accept
Jesus into your heart, or do you actually need to do good deeds and
repent for your sins? Is it really harder for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a
needle, or is that just a metaphor? Does “turn the other cheek” mean you
can’t own a gun for self-defense? Did God really just promise to
“answer prayers” (and sometimes the answer is “no”) or did he actually
promise to give “whatsoever we ask for in faith”? Is lusting after a
woman in your heart really the same as committing adultery, or was Jesus
just being metaphorical again? What’s the best way to “love thy
neighbor as thyself” while still preventing transgender people from
using the bathroom they feel most comfortable in? Is it OK to vote for
somebody who claims to share your values if he talks about sexually
assaulting women, mocks disabled people and lies all the time? What,
actually, would Jesus do? And so on and so forth.